We are a product lab focused on improving how citizens connect with first responders during emergencies.

New York City

Zone Locator

Our Story

CiviGuard was originally an exponential technologies research project
at Singularity University. During the Summer of 2009, our team at SU
was given a single overarching directive: whatever you work on has to
positively impact one billion people in ten years. We debated a number
of the world's big problems and then narrowed down on disaster
response.

Disasters displace or kill millions of people every year. Before,
during and after disasters, resources are scarce, chaos is commonplace
and communication is inconsistent. We saw a number of exponentially
growing technology areas that could dramatically change that equation
in favor of the citizens affected by these disasters. Mobile bandwidth
was growing, Smartphones were proliferating, Sensors were getting
smarter, Materials Science was finally delivering production ready
breakthroughs.

The project team conceived of a ground-breaking disaster response
platform that could deliver resources to the right people within four
hours of a disaster occurring. The platform uniquely combined a number
of Rapid Response Components:

Geo-stationary airships strategically placed around high-risk
zones, capable of carrying large payloads, including drones and
relief packs. The USAF currently uses these airships to provide
persistent "eyes in the sky" over conflict zones. Swap the optics
with payloads and you have a potential solution.

Medium-sized drones capable of precision dropping food and medicare
to stricken areas. We also explored disposable drones. Lightweight
airframes and basic propulsion capable of dropping their payload and
then "soft-landing", after which they could be serviced or
disposed.

A medicare triage kit with NFC bracelets, allowing first responders
to rapidly geotag injured citizens, establish severity status and
relay back the information to HQ so that airlifts can be smartly
provisioned. The medicare kit contained a number of miniaturized
sensor tech: portable ultra-sound scanners, EKGs and Pulse-Ox
sensors.

An intelligent Disaster Response System optimized for smartphones,
adhoc networking and multiple levels of redundancy. The DRS platform
enabled incident commanders to identify precise hotspots and
understand where key resources were being administered. Most
importantly, DRS enabled first responders and citizens on the ground
to report back their status, needs and progress.

Over the short-term horizon, focus was essentially, and the team
focused on realizing DRS before all the other components as it would
have the biggest impact based on the technology adoption curves in
2009. And that's how CiviGuard was formed. An organization focused on
building and demonstrating the advantages of a bi-directional,
real-time platform for disaster response.

CiviGuard's platform was deployed in pilot mode for the town of Manor,
Texas, a popular Citizen 2.0 community. We also activated CiviGuard for
Hurricane's Irene and Sandy, assisting 60,000+ New Yorkers out of
danger by informing them of which evacuation zones they were in and
what shelters were close by.

CiviGuard was voted to the '100 Brilliant Companies' list by
Entrepreneur Magazine in 2011. It won the GovFresh 'Emergency
Management App of the Year' in 2011. We are a a Gartner 'Cool Vendor'.
We've been featured at TechCrunch Disrupt, Where 2.0, Gov 2.0 and by
Inc. Magazine.

Team

Founding team members

Evacuation Zone Locator

The CiviGuard Evacuation Zone Locator is designed to fulfill only the
most essential use-cases in an emergency. Get context. Get help. Get safe.
Try it now

HTML5 location allowed all our apps to zero-in on
where a person was located. The denser the urban environ, the stronger
the accuracy got. This capability enabled users to get information
based on where they were versus simply getting a generic mass
notification. For the first time, people in an emergency not only knew
what was happening, but also what their options were.

In the above CiviGuard Evacuation Zone Locator app for NYC, a user's location
is identified and then they are immediately told to evacuate this area because
it happens to be under a mandatory evacuation order by the City. In the context
of a Hurricane, this is the most relevant piece of information: am I in danger
here?

Social Media Integration

Tap "Tweet your status" to share your status via the Twitter app installed on
your device. The Zone Locator app passes your last known location coordinates
as part of the message, which enables friends and first responders to locate
you if you need help.

Open Data and Map Integration

Tap a shelter icon for location details and a link to directions.
The “Get directions” link launches the Google Maps app with route options.